Bailey has been a fine captain of Australia's T20I setup.

George Bailey has proved to be a revelation for Australia in the shorter formats of the game. He has made his name in both One-Day Internationals (ODIs) and Twenty20 Internationals (T20Is). He has also shown the ability to lead Australia with a calm head on his shoulders in T20Is. Now, he is going to captain Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) in Indian Premier League (IPL).

In fact, it all came down to a choice between Virender Sehwag and Bailey to take over the role of captaining the setup. But Punjab went for Bailey.

Bailey on Sehwag’s experience helping the setup, “Given the amount of experience Sehwag has, he’ll be a leader of the side regardless of whether he is captain or not. The young players will definitely go to him and seek his guidance,” as reported by Times of India.

Sehwag’s form was poor in Ranji Trophy in 2013-14. Bailey though said, “His [Sehwag's] record speaks for itself. Bowlers are still afraid of his ability and I expect a big performance in the tournament from him.”

Bailey on the challenge of leading a side in IPL, “The challenge for me will be leading a bunch of new players — some of the guys who I’ll meet for the first time when the team gets together. I need to learn about the ability of the new guys fast and figure out how they can be best utilized,” the 31-year-old told.

Bailey is still optimistic about Australian spearhead and Punjab’s new recruit, Mitchell Johnson’s fitness. He said, “I haven’t spoke to Mitch for a while but the last I heard was that he was improving and should be fully fit by the time IPL comes around. As everyone has seen, Mitch [Johnson] has been bowling really fast recently and he is one of biggest game-changers. He has the ability to wreck a side by picking a lot of wickets in a short span of time.”

First Published on March 23, 2014 12:13 PM ISTLast updated on March 23, 2014 1:47 PM IST